The Labor enquirer., 1887-05-14
PLAINANDB0LD.
The Words of a Thinker, MOI
the Platitudes of a
Politician.
his VOICE ONCE MORE SOUNDS
We Hear from Gcolampadus in the
Tribune of theAmerlcan
People.
Fanueil Hall Echoes with the Elo-
+ quent Voice Of Citizen
John Swiuton.
His VOICE ONCE MORE SOUNDS

Boston people crowded Fanueil Hall in
the evening to hear John Swinton give
one of his characteristic addresses on the
revolutionary forces of the times. We
print extracts from his extended remarks
as follows
The tendency of population is towards
massing in huge centers, so that, while in
the early days of our century but thir-
teenth of our people we're urban, fully
quarter are now massed in our. towns and
cities. This change is influential in ener-
giving the mind of our people, of unity
ing them to degree impossible in rustic
regions. Another revolutionary force of
the times is the massing of capital, now SO
largely owned by individuals and syndi-
Gates. Within stones throw of my Of
fee there is black bearded little pirate
named Jay Gould who wields to-day, If he
does not own, the monstrous sum of
$1,000, 900, ,0O0-more gold than there was
in the entire Roman empire at the time of
Augustus Cesar There is, or was, an
other man near my Office who controlled
as much by his influence over a half dozen
great roads and corporations. Then there
are men who, by their hold upon capital
can take aid confscate from $1O,OOO,OOO
to $20,O00,0OO from the pockets of the
workingmen. Much as is heard of the
wealth and the dinners of men like Lucul-
lus, there was no possession of money to
such an extent as this in Rome. The
holding and controlling of such vast sums
by individuals and syndicates create for
midable conditions for our industrial civ
ilization. But there is another kind of
thing taking place. The employers, heads
of industry, are massing themselves into
bodies-pooling their capital in fact, for
mutual interest. The master builders of
Chicago last week acted as q unit in this
way with result you all know. The stove
moulders and other collateral trades of
the country are organized into a gigantic
capitalist mass, and are controlling the
entire trade of the United States. Anoth-
or revolutionary force is the growth and
massing of machinery. A patent lawyer
told me that when he went to Washington
the patent Office there had only fifteen
patents to deal with week; the number
now was 500. During the past twenty
years the mechanical resources of the
world have risen from 100000 horse
power to 20,000,0O0. In our country since
1870 the labor saving horse power of
mechanism has quadrupled, having risen
from triae over 100000 to more than
100000. And as one horse power is
equivalent to ten men, there has been
added to the resources of capitalists the
strength of 6O,OOO,OOO able bodied chattel
slaves, or five times more than our daily
laboring force at this moment. What a
trifing thing was the abolition of the
work of slaves! In half the time since the
abolition of slavery capital has accumu-
lated into its grasp fifty times the entire
slave force of the country before the war.
Now that machinery has been applied to
every plane of industry, Lynn and few
other towns of this state can shoe the
world. Grand Rapids and few other
towns can furnish houses for the world.
These facts open up an entertaining vista.
In the United states alone the producing
power of machinery is equal to 100000
600 men, and could put out more in half
year than the whole working force of the
world could produce in year when our
festive grandfathers held the fort. The
efficiency of labor has beeu increased more
than 500 per cent. during the past century
by machinery, but has the welfare of the
workers been increased 500 per cent?
In the fourth place another feature of
the revolutionary force is the wholesale
employment of women and children as
operators of these mechanical powers.
The Greek and Roman women spun at
their distaffs; the women of medieval
days spun at the spinning wheel or fol-
lowed the plough, but the employment of
hundreds and thousands OF women and
children as part Of our modern industrial